"Keep government out of Medicare?" Not easy

"Keep government out of Medicare?" Not easy
By Clarence Page
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
August 09, 2009
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/pagespage/2009/08/medicare-fantasies.html


It's easy to make fun of Sarah Palin's ramblings, but she's a public policy genius compared to some of her beloved "real Americans" who show up at town halls.

At a recent town hall meeting in a South Carolina suburb, for example, a man stood up and sternly told Republican Rep. Robert Inglis to "keep your government hands off my Medicare."

"I had to politely explain that, 'Actually, sir, your health care is being provided by the government,' " Inglis said later. "But he wasn't having any of it."

When Donna Shalala was secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, she recalls in a recent NPR interview, somebody actually told her to "keep government out of my Medicare."

An elderly woman in the New Orleans Airport reportedly delivered a similar sentiment to Democratic Louisiana Sen. John Breaux during the Clinton health care debate: "Senator, senator," she said. "Now don't you let the government get a hold of my Medicare."

The Medicare-isn't-government anecdote has repeated itself in so many ways and episodes that Timothy Noah at Slate has put out an open invitation for you, dear reader, to submit more.

No wonder so many anxious Americans are so agitated about the possibility of "government health care." they don't even realize when they already have it.

Or maybe they're just in denial.

Take, for example, a soundbite at the 2:38 point in this rant from actor Craig T. Nelson of the old TV series "Coach."

He threatened to stop paying his income taxes out of rage against government freeloaders. "I've been on welfare and food stamps...did anyone help me?" Nelson said, perhaps unaware that welfare and food stamps are two forms of help from taxpayers.

Similarly a lot of people have the notion that "government health care" is some foreign monstrosity that our government would only screw it up if it ever tried it.
In fact, as I recall in my Chicago Tribune column today, similar arguments were made when Medicare was born in the 1960s. Today, despite its flaws, Medicare is one of the most cherished programs in the federal government.

No wonder the political Right is worried. If Medicare-style "government health care" were offered to everyone, not just seniors, we just might like it.